“Be truthful for truthfulness leads to righteousness and righteousness leads to Paradise…”

This evening I have been reflecting on the importance of honesty in Islaam. Sadly, it appears (and Allah knows best) to be a characteristic that is often neglected in our everyday evaluation of priorities. I must qualify that statement with the addition of a disclaimer that I am not a faqeeh–in fact I am no where near even needing to disclaim it because I am so far from it–but when we think about the example of our prophet sallahAllahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, and the fact that he sallahAllahu ‘alayhi wa sallam was known among his people (even before revelation began) as as-saadiq (the truthful) al-ameen (the trustworthy), and then we juxtapose that with our everyday experience in interacting with others, it’s very disheartening how little emphasis we appear to place on truthfulness and honesty. waAllahu ta’aala a’alem. I truly ask that this rant is of benefit to those who read it (and does not merely come across as the venting of a Muslim sister). I ask Allah to make these reminders of benefit to me and to the ummah at large. Ameen. The following excerpts are from two different sources (the only edits I have made are formatting and the occasional addition of salawat after the prophet’s name sallahAllahu ‘alayhi wa sallam). The source of each set of excerpts is provided above each compilation of excerpts.

‘Be truthful for truthfulness leads to righteousness and righteousness leads to Paradise. If a man tells the truth and nothing but the truth, he will be registered with Allaah as the truthful one. Beware of lying, for lying leads to sinfulness and sinfulness leads to Hell. If a man tells a lie and nothing but a lie, he will be registered with Allaah as a liar.” (Bukhaaree and Muslim)

Allaah promises a great reward for truthfulness in this world and the next. In this world, Allaah provides for the truthful good name and love of Allaah and His creatures. His words will be valued, people will feel safe with him and from his evil deeds and he will do good to himself and others. He will also be saved from evils and calamities that afflict the liars. He will have peace of mind, no fear and worries. Hasan ibn Alee narrated that he heard the Messenger of Allaah (sallahAllahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) saying,

“Leave that which is ambiguous to you and take that which you are sure of. Truthfulness is tranquillity while lying is ambiguity.” (At-Tirmidhee)

Lying is an evil characteristic, which all religions and systems of ethics warn against and which man’s innate common disposition, or Fitrah, agrees is wrong. Those who possess chivalry and sound reasoning will testify to this fact. Truthfulness is one of the pillars on which the moral survival of the world depends. It is the foundation of praiseworthy characteristics, the cornerstone of Prophethood and the fruit of the consciousness of Allaah, or Taqwaa. Were it not for truthfulness, the rulings of all divinely-revealed laws would collapse. Acquiring the characteristic of lying is akin to shedding one’s humanity, because speaking is an exclusively human trait. Our purely monotheistic Islamic Law, or Sharee’ah, warns against lying in the Qur’aan and Sunnah, and there is consensus among the Muslims that it is Haraam. The liar will have bad consequences in this world and in the next.

Abu Bakr As-Siddeeq, may Allaah be pleased with him, said: “Beware of lying, for it has nothing to do with faith.”

It was narrated that Sa’d ibn Abi Waqqaas, may Allaah be pleased with him, said: “The believer may acquire all sorts of characteristics except treachery and lying.”

It was narrated that ‘Umar, may Allaah be pleased with him, said: “True faith is not achieved until one gives up lying in jest.”

It was narrated that Hafs ibn ‘Aasim, may Allaah be pleased with him said: “The Messenger of Allaah sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam said: ‘It is sufficient for a man to be a liar due to his relaying of everything that he hears.’” (Muslim).

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whats sad is that in today’s world, even in muslim circles, you end up finding people who don’t value ‘truth’ as highly as they should. and so lies rest easy on the tongues and easier on the hearts. amongst brothers and sisters.

allahualem, but whats worse is that when people are exposed, it doesn’t even hurt them to be known as ‘dishonest’ (the exact opposite of our Beloved Example PBUH).

…youth now, will lie conveniently with no worry of what may result, and no remorse for their past lack or honesty…yet at the same time, revealing their true selves on facebook and other sites to the world, what truly lies beneath.

Though not a shaykha by any means–and may Allah make us better than we seem–I would like to respond by saying that this post was actually motivated by my observation of the characteristic amongst “Muslim circles,” may Allah protect us and guide the ummah. Ameen.

As for the phenomenon you mention, I’d like to respond with a few quotes (even though this goes beyond a mere response to the question)–

1) [I don’t know the original source for this story, but I found a summary of it online]: Umar ibnul Khattab was making one of his rounds during the night and he came close to a house and a woman was speaking to her daughter, ‘Get up my daughter and mix the milk with water so we can sell it to the people. They will not know that it is mixed and we will make great profit.’ The girls said, ‘O my dear mother, the Ameer of the Muslims has prohibited us from doing this.’ The mother said, ‘Where is the leader of the Muslims now? He is not here.’ The girl said, ‘The leader of the Muslims may not see us, but the Lord of the Ameer sees us!’.

Clearly, the fitra is honesty, and it is protected when we fear and/or desire to please Allah more than we fear/ desire the dunya or the approval of people. When the fear of the people or the fear of poverty grows stronger than the fear of Allah, the fitra of honesty is corrupted.

2) Though it frequently gets a bad rap by some, “When people become stingy, deal with ‘Eenah (a form of Ribaa), follow their cattle and become satisfied with agriculture (i.e., become attached to agriculture and commerce) then Allaah will afflict them with humiliation until they return to their religion.”

Though we may not realize it, dishonesty is not a desirable characteristic, and I would go as far as to say that it is humiliating to be known as one who is dishonest–one whose word cannot be trusted, whose advice is no long sought, and whose input becomes worthless. Until we return to our religion, this humiliation will not be lifted.

3) “…But whoever seeks to please the people by displeasing Allaah, Allaah will leave him to the people.”(Saheeh al-Tirmidhi).

Regarding the facebook (or facebook-like) phenomenon you mention, (with no accolades or educational background to back this up) my opinion is that, in life, everyone is seeking to please something or someone. Some may be seeking to please their own desires, some may be seeking to please a certain clique of friends, some may be seeking to please their teachers, etc. (and we pray that Allah makes us of those who put no priority above the priority of seeking to please Him, though it is a hard priority to maintain). Therefore, in creating our online selves, there is an aim to please, and for everyone we please (or aim to please) there will be those who criticize, those who poke fun, those who discredit what has been done by calling us “wanna be’s,” etc. In fact, there are both age old proverbs and contemporary sayings that acknowledge the fact that you can’t please all of the people, but we often forget that fact. Anyhow, essentially the online personalities are made to please a certain crowd (forgetting Allah and forgetting the “haters” as I’m sure they would be called), and Allah leaves those seeking to please these people at the mercy of the people–which is undoubtedly a lose-lose situation. This does nothing to respond to the question of “why?,” but I think it points out the loss of those who follow that line of thinking–may Allah protect and guide us all. Ameen!